Tuesday, October 13, 2009

LEGO Star Wars: A Visual Dictionary

Tonight I want to post about one of the most fought over and loved books I have ever added to my classroom: LEGO Star Wars: A Visual Dictionary. After noticing that a majority of boys in my classroom had either Star Wars or LEGOS (or both ) on their heart maps, I gave in to buying this book I saw on Amazon's new release listing. I say "gave in " because in the past, I have been skeptical of books with tv or movie characters and this felt like it fit in this category. I decided to take a chance and buy it because I knew how many kids had an interest in LEGOS. I related it to myself buying books about scrapbooking or cooking because they are hobbies of mine. LEGOS are hobbies for some kids in my class.

I am very glad I did for a couple reasons...

1. The book begins with a timeline that details the release of certain LEGO Star Wars Sets that have been available for purchase over the past 5 years. The time line is easy to read and includes detailed pictures of each set and information about which episode the set is from. I felt like this feature as well as the general organization of the book (4 chapters). We spent sometime noticing this feature and I look forward to thinking about how we could come back to it for a mentor timeline.

2. It has created connections among (primarily) the boys in my classroom which in turn build community. The boys are having conversations about what LEGOS they have, want and like to play with. It also has reminded kids about the legos we have in our classroom for indoor recess and has encouraged pretend play with them. ( The book also has a Luke Skywalker mini figure that we added to our classroom box of legos)

I have also run into some difficulties with the popularity of this book (having 14 of 22 student who are boys and adore legos).

1. One student hid the book today. So, I have asked that the book stay on our display shelf so that kids can take turns with it. It has not been allowed to live in one person's book bin.

2. A few kids wanted to take the book home. Usually, I allow all books in our classroom library to go home for the night but with the newness and excitement surrounding this book, I told the kids it needed to stay in the classroom just in case someone might forget it at home. I know I will probably let kids begin to take it home in a week or two when the excitement subsides.